The status of the credit of a purchaser at a retail merchant store is of increasing concern to merchants that frequently come up short by virtue of a lack of funds. Banks also have a vital interest in reducing the number of bad checks presented to them to aid in their sale of ready reserve accounts, guaranteed check cards and reducing bookkeeping costs. With a way of detecting short checks at the time of purchase, banks are able to help their commercial customers hold down their losses and keep the consumer by the eventual lowering of prices by reduction of merchant's losses.
Some attempts have been made to provide a system and method for verifying credit status, but have not been entirely satisfactory due to an inadequate data base, inadequate storage capabilities, slowness in response, vagueness in responses or answers, and excessive costs in relation to the value to the merchant. The "negative" method or system typically stores bad accounts, and a "positive" system or method typically provides a credit balance.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a novel system and method for verifying the credit status in a fast yet relatively inexpensive manner which has the capability of operating continuously 24 hours a day.
Another object of this invention is to provide a novel system and method of verifying the credit status of a customer without undue demands on a relatively large, high capacity computer and yet utilize the speed and storage capacity advantages of such a computer over a multi-state area.
Yet a further object of this invention is to provide a novel system and method of verifying credit status that would be beneficial to both bankers and merchants in reducing the number of short checks and providing a balance verification.
Still another further object of this invention is to provide a novel credit status verification system and method that has the capabilities of providing a range of information about the credit status of a customer suitable for use either as a positive system or negative system and will service a relatively large number of relatively inexpensive terminal units through a single interface controller operable in association with a telephone line.
Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the present invention will become more apparent as the description proceeds when taken in conjunction with the acompanying drawings in which: